District of Columbia
D.C. jury convicts man for hate crime assault against gay couple
Attacker targeted male victims after seeing them holding hands
A D.C. Superior Court jury on Dec. 12 found a 42-year-old District man guilty of two counts of bias related assault against a gay male couple on Aug. 3 after seeing the men holding hands outside the 9:30 Club in the Shaw neighborhood.
Court records show the jury also found the attacker, Franklin Siate, guilty of the offense of attempted threats against a female employee of the 9:30 Club after the woman and witnesses said he threatened to rape and murder her a short time before he targeted the two gay men.
Superior Court Judge Jennifer Di Toro, who presided over Siate’s trial, scheduled a sentencing hearing for Feb. 10.
Under D.C.’s hate crimes law, the judge has the authority to hand down a sentence one and a half times greater than the maximum sentence for the underlying charge of assault to which he was convicted in connection with the attack against the two gay men.
Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia who serves as the city’s chief prosecutor, referred to Siate’s conviction and his office’s efforts to prosecute hate crimes at a Dec. 20 press briefing on D.C. crime trends for 2024 in response to a question from the Washington Blade about hate crimes.
“On the night of August 3, 2024, Siate verbally and then physically accosted multiple people outside the 9:30 Club,” a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office says. “First, he approached a line of patrons waiting to enter the concert venue for a Taylor Swift Dance Party and started yelling at them,” the statement says.
“He then turned his attention to a 9:30 Club employee and threatened to rape and murder her,” the statement continues. “He then saw two men walking by, holding hands, and acting affectionately towards one another.” The statement adds, “Siate followed them down the block saying, ‘Gays cannot hold hands in my city.’ You’re in my living room, yelling a slur at them.”
According to the statement, Siate then “picked up a large sign outside of another establishment, lifted it over his head, and charged toward the two men.” It says a D.C. police officer arrived just in time to stop Siate from physically hitting the men with the sign.
Under the D.C. criminal code, the actions by Siate against the two gay men and the woman employee of the 9:30 Club constitute a criminal offense of assault and threat of violence even though there was no reported physical contact.
Court records show that Siate was released on the day following his arrest on his own recognizance while awaiting trial. But the records show he was arrested on a new, unrelated charge on Aug. 31 for allegedly threatening a man with a knife and assaulting a police officer. The records show he has been held in jail since that time and will remain in custody until at least the time of his Feb. 10 sentencing hearing.
The Blade reached out to the couple who were victims in the incident. They requested to be identified only by their first names, Collin, 28, and his partner, Clayton, 29.
Collin said he and Clayton went to the 9:30 Club with the hope of buying tickets for the Taylor Swift Dance Party performance, but they quickly learned the tickets were sold out. He said the two men then began walking away from the 9:30 club when Siate saw then holding hands and began to harass them.
“He started off by saying gays can’t hold hands in D.C.,” Collin recounted. “And then he said gays can’t hold hands in my city,” according to Collin, who added, “And then he started following us. I told him to get away from us. He said, you’re in my living room and then he proceeded to call us ‘faggots’ twice.”
A short time later, as the couple were approaching a nearby ice cream shop called Coneacopia, Siate picked up a sign outside the shop and “started charging at us” with the two men fearing he was about to hit them with the sign, Collin told the Blade. At that time, a D.C. police officer arrived on the scene in his patrol car after Collin called 911 and waved at the officer as he approached the scene.
As the police officer arrived Siate “runs up to the police officer and tells the officer that we were harassing him and that we were throwing rocks at him,” Collin said. But after the officer took a full statement from Collin and Clayton, he put Siate in handcuffs, Collin said. He said after the first officer and other police officers who arrived on the scene and spoke with witnesses, they placed Siate under arrest.
According to Collin, “It came out to be a good evening after all the craziness.” He said 9:30 Club employees, who witnessed much of the interaction between Siate, and the two gay men unfold, told Collin and Clayton, “We’re so sorry this happened to you guys. You can come in,” allowing them to attend the Taylor Swift Dance Party show despite its sold-out status.
D.C. police records, meanwhile, show that as of Oct. 31 of this year, the most recent data available, the assault against Collin and Clayton outside the 9:30 Club was one of 40 anti-LGBTQ hate crimes reported for 2024.
The data shows that 22 of the reported incidents were based on the victim’s sexual orientation and 18 of the hate crime incidents were based on the victim’s gender identity.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats elect new leaders
LGBTQ political group set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Longtime Democratic Party activists Stevie McCarty and Brad Howard won election last week as president and vice president for administration for the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization.
In a Feb. 24 announcement, the group said McCarty and Howard, both of whom are elected DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, ran in a special Capital Stonewall Democrats election to fill the two leadership positions that became vacant when the officers they replaced resigned.
Outgoing President Howard Garrett, who McCarty has replaced, told the Washington Blade he resigned after taking on a new position as chair of the city’s Ward 1 Democratic Committee. The Capital Stonewall Democrats announcement didn’t say who Howard replaced as vice president for administration.
The group’s website shows its other officers include Elizabeth Mitchell as Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, and Monica Nemeth as Treasurer. The officer position of secretary is vacant, the website shows.
“As we look toward 2026, the stakes for D.C. and for LGBTQ+ communities have never been clearer,” the group’s statement announcing McCarty and Howard’s election says. “Our 50th anniversary celebration on March 20 and the launch of our D.C. LGBTQ+ Voter’s Guide mark the beginning of a major year for endorsements, organizing, and coalition building,” the statement says.
McCarty said among the organization’s major endeavors will be holding virtual endorsement forums where candidates running for D.C. mayor and the Council will appear and seek the group’s endorsement.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to Capital Stonewall Democrats. McCarty said the 50th anniversary celebration on March 20, in which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Council are expected to attend, will be held at the PEPCO Gallery meeting center at 702 8th St., N.W.
District of Columbia
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Suspect ID’d from images captured by Spark Social House security cameras
D.C. police on Feb. 18 arrested a 63-year-old man “of no fixed address” for allegedly stealing cash from the registers at the gay bar Spark Social House after unlawfully entering the bar at 2009 14th St., N.W., around 12:04 a.m. after it had closed for business, according to a police incident report.
“Later that day officers canvassing for the suspect located him nearby,” a separate police statement says. “63-year-old Tony Jones of no fixed address was arrested and charged with Burglary II,” the statement says.
The police incident report states that the bar’s owner, Nick Tsusaki, told police investigators that the bar’s security cameras captured the image of a man who has frequently visited the bar and was believed to be homeless.
“Once inside, the defendant was observed via the establishment’s security cameras opening the cash register, removing U.S. currency, and placing the currency into the left front pocket of his jacket,” the report says.
Tsusaki told the Washington Blade that he and Spark’s employees have allowed Jones to enter the bar many times since it opened last year to use the bathroom in a gesture of compassion knowing he was homeless. Tsusaki said he is not aware of Jones ever having purchased anything during his visits.
According to Tsusaki, Spark closed for business at around 10:30 p.m. on the night of the incident at which time an employee did not properly lock the front entrance door. He said no employees or customers were present when the security cameras show Jones entering Spark through the front door around 12:04 a.m.
Tsusaki said the security camera images show Jones had been inside Spark for about three hours on the night of the burglary and show him taking cash out of two cash registers. He took a total of $300, Tsusaki said.
When Tsusaki and Spark employees arrived at the bar later in the day and discovered the cash was missing from the registers they immediately called police, Tsusaki told the Blade. Knowing that Jones often hung out along the 2000 block of 14th Street where Spark is located, Tsusaki said he went outside to look for him and saw him across the street and pointed Jones out to police, who then placed him under arrest.
A police arrest affidavit filed in court states that at the time they arrested him police found the stolen cash inside the pocket of the jacket Jones was wearing. It says after taking him into police custody officers found a powdered substance in a Ziploc bag also in Jones’s possession that tested positive for cocaine, resulting in him being charged with cocaine possession in addition to the burglary charge.
D.C. Superior Court records show a judge ordered Jones held in preventive detention at a Feb. 19 presentment hearing. The judge then scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on Feb. 20, the outcome of which couldn’t immediately be obtained.
District of Columbia
Judge rescinds order against activist in Capital Pride lawsuit
Darren Pasha accused of stalking organization staff, board members, volunteers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb.18 agreed to rescind his earlier ruling declaring local gay activist Darren Pasha in default for failing to attend a virtual court hearing regarding an anti-stalking lawsuit brought against him by the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual Pride events.
The Capital Pride lawsuit, initially filed on Oct. 27, 2025, accuses Pasha of engaging in a year-long “course of conduct” of “harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior” targeting Capital Pride staff, board members, and volunteers.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
Judge Robert D. Okum nevertheless on Feb. 6 approved a temporary stay-away order requiring Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, volunteers, and board members until the time of a follow-up court hearing scheduled for April 17. He reduced the stay-away distance from 200 yards as requested by Capital Pride.
In his two-page order issued on Feb. 18, Okun stated that Pasha explained that he was involved in a scooter accident in which he was injured and his phone was damaged, preventing him from joining the Feb. 6 court hearing.
“Therefore, the court finds there is a good cause for vacating the default,” Okun states in his order.
At the time he initially approved the default order at the Feb. 6 hearing that Pasha didn’t attend, Okun scheduled an April 17 ex parte proof hearing in which Capital Pride could have requested a ruling in its favor seeking a permanent anti-stalking order against Pasha.
In his Feb. 18 ruling rescinding the default order Okun changed the April 17 ex parte proof hearing to an initial scheduling conference hearing in which a decision on the outcome of the case is not likely to happen.
In addition, he agreed to consider Pasha’s call for a jury trial and gave Capital Pride 14 days to contest that request. The Capital Pride lawsuit initially called for a non-jury trial by judge.
One request by Pasha that Okum denied was a call for him to order Capital Pride to stop its staff or volunteers from posting information about the lawsuit on social media. Pasha has said the D.C.-based online blog called DC Homos, which Pasha claims is operated by someone associated with Capital Pride, has been posting articles portraying him in a negative light and subjecting him to highly negative publicity.
“The defendant has not set forth a sufficient basis for the court to restrict the plaintiff’s social media postings, and the court therefore will deny the defendant’s request in his social media praecipe,” Okun states in his order.
A praecipe is a formal written document requesting action by a court.
Pasha called the order a positive development in his favor. He said he plans to file another motion with more information about what he calls the unfair and defamatory reports about him related to the lawsuit by DC Homos, with a call for the judge to reverse his decision not to order Capital Pride to stop social media postings about the lawsuit.
Pasha points to a video interview on the LGBTQ Team Rayceen broadcast, a link to which he sent to the Washington Blade, in which DC Homos operator Jose Romero acknowledged his association with Capital Pride Alliance.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos didn’t immediately respond to a message from the Blade asking whether Romero was a volunteer or employee with Capital Pride.
Pasha also said he believes the latest order has the effect of rescinding the temporary stay away order against him approved by Okun in his earlier ruling, even though Okun makes no mention of the stay away order in his latest ruling. Capital Pride attorney Nick Harrison told the Blade the stay away order “remains in full force and effect.”
Harrison said Capital Pride has no further comment on the lawsuit.
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